El puerto de Tánger Med se consolida como el más frecuentado del Mediterráneo

Moroccan investments in the national industry are turning the ports of the North African nation into the most important in the Mediterranean region. The continuous traffic that the docks of the Alaouite Kingdom are experiencing has reached the highest levels in their history for as long as data has been available. The unstoppable rise of the port of Tangier Med is so high that it has now produced 50% more than what has been for much of the 21st century the most important port in the Mediterranean: the port of Valencia. This port is still showing the symptoms of its low activity due to the pandemic, while the port of Tangier, according to the latest figures recorded, has not only recovered its usual traffic, but is setting record figures. 

A port's container throughput is the ideal thermometer to determine the magnitude of a port. In 2022, the Valencian docks moved a total of 5.05 million TEUs (official container measure of 6.1m) which represents a decrease of half a million, or 7% of the total moved in 2021. In the same period, the port of Tangier Med moved nearly 7.6 million TEUs, 50.4% more than the Valencian installations and 6% more in relation to its production in 2021.

The Port Authorities of the Valencian Community, as reported by the Spanish media elEconomista, estimate that the drop in traffic in the port is due to the big fall in international trade, as shown by the international figures for the last year, rather than to a specific problem in the Valencian port. The arguments put forward by the Valencian authorities are not understandable when the Moroccan port of Tangier Med has increased its production by 50%, which indicates that the problem lies in the Valencian shipyards or that the port of Tangier Med has found a way to overcome the drop in international trade. 

The achievement of the port of Tangier Med is a clear symptom that the Moroccan government's commitment to the merchant industry has been one of the great successes of the Rabat Administration. Not only surpassing the port of Valencia, but also that of Piraeus (Athens, Greece) as the largest container operator in the region. Moreover, the data augurs a promising future for the port of the Moroccan kingdom which, excluding the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, has grown continuously and exponentially.

It can also be compared with two other giants of the industry such as the port of Barcelona, the port with the largest cruise traffic in the Mediterranean and the most important worldwide, and the port of Algeciras. Both ports, together with that of Valencia, saw their production decrease in 2022, however, they did so by 0.26% and 0.74%, which adds even more value to the feat achieved by the Moroccan dock. 

According to statements collected in elEconomista, the president of the Port Authority of Valencia, Aurelio Martínez, recognises from the institution that there has been a diversion towards other Spanish ports due to the long queues produced by the container crisis in the large ports of the world, mostly Chinese and North American. He thus justifies why the figures for the port of Valencia have decreased so much, recognising that the diversion to ports such as Malaga and Barcelona in Spain and the port of Gioia Tauro in Italy, have caused a decrease of around 16.8% of its annual traffic.

This transhipment of containers has been considerably implemented by large operators such as MSC, the largest shipping grouping in the world, where half of its traffic took place in the Valencian port. Finding a solution to end this stagnation, which could otherwise be a prolonged decline, has been delayed by Valencia's rejection of proposals from the Compromis and Podemos political parties. 

With these measures and contracts, the Valencian port will seek to regain the top position in terms of container traffic, a task which will be difficult for the Valencian administration due to the figures being set by the port of Tangier Med, which will most likely continue to grow as international trade recovers from the consequences of COVID and the container crisis which did so much damage to all sectors of the international industry.